My friend Deb was having a BBQ and when I asked what she wanted me to make she gave what I thought was the unlikeliest answer for a Scandinavian Goddess. She knew it was out of the blue too. “I don’t know why, but would you make noodle kugel?”

OK. Out came the cookbooks: from the very old standby Love and Knishes to the pretty new and truly fabulous Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden. Now, I don’t necessarily see recipes and more than a starting point even the first time, so I read through many and came up with my own hybrid. Lokshen kugel mitt Eppel (noodle pudding with apple)

As it turned out I was the only Jew in crowd. The food ranged from what you would expect at any good backyard party to fabulous homemade tamales (I’m a sucker for a good tamal) to that oddball kugel. Well, guess what one of the standouts in food conversation was? It engendered a great conversation and I had a ball holding forth about Jewish food, the diaspora and how our food culture has been influenced by all the places we’ve wanered as a people.

And Deb got to have the last bit of leftover for breakfast the next day!

2 Responses to My First Kugel

Melinda – there’s a link in the recipe and on my recipe page for lookshen kugel mitt eppel.

The hybrid is that there was recipe for noodle kugel with cheese and one that was with apple and no dairy. Thinking that they would go well together I thought “why not both?” The apple recipe called for 4 apples which I thought would have made it too wet so I cut it down. I might try less ricotta and more apple to keep the balance though i do really like the richness of fresh whole milk ricotta. Star makes a light noodle kugel that is really good.